NIU men’s tennis (17-4, 6-2 MAC) earned its second MAC loss after losing to the University of Toledo (11-10, 6-3 MAC) in a 6-1 defeat, snapping the five match win streak in the conference.
After staring slow in doubles matches, the Huskies couldn’t recover in singles.
Seniors Cheng En Tsai and Mikael Vollbach were bested in a 6-2 set by senior Pawit Sornlaksup and graduate student Marko Galic. In a 7-5 set, senior Armin Koschtojan and freshman Saul Berdullas were defeated by Toledo freshman Poonthong Komolpisut and junior Hanamichi Carvajal.
After a 6-6 first set and a 4-3 second set, sophomores Iker Gaztambide Arrastia and Christopher Norlin’s match against senior Adam Kovac and freshman Charlie Snow was ruled incomplete after Toledo clinched the doubles point.
Arrastia earned the lone point for the Huskies after defeating freshman Cole Cozens in 6-2, 2-6 and 6-1 sets.
Tsai lost to Sornlaksup in quick 6-1, 6-3 sets. Vollbach was also defeated in two sets, losing 6-4 and 6-2 sets against Galic. Also in 6-4, 6-2 sets, Berdullas lost to Carvajal.
Koschtojan dropped the first set against Komolpisut 7-5, before winning the second set 6-1. In a tiebreaker set, he was defeated 0(8)-1(10). Norlin was overpowered by sophomore Matias Olivero in 6-3, 6-4 sets.
“We didn’t start as fast as we’d like in doubles and simply gave away too many free points in singles,” men’s tennis head coach René Vidal said via NIU Athletics. “We’ll get back to work this week and be ready for Friday’s match against Ball State.”
NIU men’s tennis looks to get back in the win column at noon Friday when they return home to the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House when they take on Ball State University. A live stream will be available via Track Tennis.
